You are our future – study hard!

Knowledge Day. I will not congratulate schoolchildren and students with this “holiday” because from my own experience I remember that the “last bell” in spring is a much more festive event than the “first” one in autumn

And in general, there’s too much archaic Soviet pathos and formalism in this phrase “Knowledge Day.” Such a holiday could have existed a hundred years ago, but not today, when a person receives more information in one day than they once did through the course of their entire life. It’s more about the “moment of knowledge,” about the constant and continuous accumulation of knowledge about our world.

But today I want to say something else. I want to ask you one simple and obvious thing: LEARN! This is extremely important. In today’s world, in all developed countries, a positive cult of knowledge has emerged. Learning is the way to personal self-realization and to the self-realization of countries, nations and communities. An educated, erudite person is the norm of the modern world.

In our world today, industry and resources are no longer the main strategic value. People and knowledge, information – that’s what’s most important.

We have a wonderful historical background for knowledge. After all, Ukraine has always been a wise country. In the Middle Ages we had what was perhaps the largest library in Europe and the finest universities. The hetmans of Ukraine weren’t some literary highwaymen, but educated, wise people who graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, knew classical languages, wrote poetry and philosophical treatises. Hetman Ivan Mazepa negotiated with Charles XII in Swedish – without a translator!!!

The modern world is driven by education and science. Our top students today work in Silicon Valley in the US, Google, Facebook, Apple. We are smart! It’s not a mantra, it’s reality.

And under any circumstances, our future breakthrough, our success, our victory rests on knowledge and technology. You are our future! Study hard!!!